No fewer than 38 senior officers
of the Nigerian Army have rejected the decision of the Army Council to
compulsorily retire them from the service.

The officers on Wednesday asked
Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to authorise an impartial investigation
into the allegations they brought against the Army and an independent review of
the Army Council’s decision.

The affected officers made the
demand in a petition they addressed to the acting president, lamenting that
they “have been subjected to deliberate pattern of abuse including denial of
access to administrative procedures for seeking redress since the Army Council
decided in 2016.”

After President Muhammadu Buhari
assumed office in 2015, the Nigerian Army and Office of National Security
Adviser instituted two panels to inquire allegations of electoral malpractices
by some military personnel and corruption associated with arms procurement.

In June 2016, the Nigeria Army
under the leadership of the Minister of Defense, Mr. Mansur Dan-Ali and Chief
of Defense Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin presided over a sitting of the Army
Council and decided to compulsorily retire 38 senior officers.

But in a petition signed by their
counsel, Mr. Abdul Muhammed, the officers said they did not at any time appear
before any one of the two panels that were set up or any other inquiry of
investigation before the Army Council recommended their compulsory retirement.

The petition said the officers
“were never investigated for any infraction, they were never indicted, they
were never tried and they were never convicted of any disciplinary or criminal
breaches whatsoever”.

“Many of the officers had no
relationship with election duties or procurement office as alleged by army
leadership. They have never served in procurement capacity throughout their
careers or participated in any form of election duties during the 2015 general
election.

“None of the 38 senior officers that were
compulsorily retired was at any time ever charged, tried, tried by a court
martial or found guilty of any offence in line with armed forces extant rules
and regulations, before they respectively heard of their retirement in the
media.

“None of these officers has ever
been informed of the particulars of any alleged offense till date aside the
bogus assertion made by army leadership in the media. Some of the affected
officers wrote to the army authority to furnish them with facts that constitute
any alleged offense, but regrettably the army has failed to respond to this
simple request one year after.”

The petition said records of the
Army would confirm that some of these 38 retired officers were actually in the
frontline of North-eastern operations waging war against terror which earned
them official commendations and accolades for their exploits, as against the
narrative of participating in election duties.

It added that some of the
officers on the list of petitioners were on army posting outside the shores of
Nigeria during the period of the general elections and during the entire
periods that the relevant panels were sitting in Kaduna and at Abuja.

It alleged that someone in the
leadership of the military was involved in victimisation of the officers,
noting that their names were substituted in place of the guilty ones in a case
of gross corruption and abuse of office.

The petition said the action of
the military in the matter of the 38 officers was based on pure vendetta and
pursuit of opaque objectives such as attempt to coerce officers “to commit crimes
in future elections.

“This was motivated by their
desire to further their personal ambitions and interests without any
consideration whatsoever for overall national interest and security.”